I think it’s pretty fair to say that the biggest era of industrial/Industrial rock was the mid to late 1990’s. At the height of the genre’s popularity one of the genre’s top most popular bands was Stabbing Westward. These guys were on movie and video game soundtracks, MTV, and had articles in major music magazines. They enjoyed a level of greater popularity than bands of the genre usually achieve.
In my mind Stabbing Westward have always been WAY ahead of their time, their first album Ungod came out in 1994 and many critics were drawing comparisons to Nine Inch Nails but in my mind they were nothing alike. Their musical fusion of industrial darkness with their own brand of metal they created a sound that wasn’t like any of their contemporaries, Add to that the emotive and powerful voice of Christopher Hall you had an incredibly fierce industrial rock band. Stabbing Westward released four great albums prior to breaking up the band: 1994’s Ungod. 1996’s Wither, Blister, Burn, and Peel. 1998’s Darkest Days, and 2001’s Stabbing Westward. After the band broke up Christopher Hall went on to form The Dreaming, That bands third album would see Stabbing Westward’s co founder Walter Flakus join the band and the seeds for the return of Stabbing Westward were sown.
It would be 19 years before they reunited and released the Dead and Gone EP in 2020, which featured 3 brand new songs and Hallowed Hymns which was a covers EP that same year. 19 years between releases would be enough to make a band rusty but that is not the case here, They haven’t lost a thing musically and Christopher sounds as vocally impressive as he ever did. Chasing Ghosts is the album fans were hoping for as a follow up for Darkest Days and then some, This is everything you want in a Stabbing Westward album but it’s far from them just trying to recapture the past, this is the Stabbing Westward of the modern era and it’s gloriously crushing!
The album starts with it’s first single “I Am Nothing” industrial beats dominate the first verses before the guitars kick in at the chorus, this song is vintage Stabbing Westward and a great start to the album. “Damaged Goods” starts off with a whispering voice on loop and some great pulsing beats that remind me a bit of Daft Punk, This song is a cold, furious slab of industrial that would be perfect for the soundtrack of Blade Runner or Tron and is one of my favorites on the album.
“Cold” is one of three songs on this album which were on the Dead and Gone EP, But rather than just porting them over these songs are different than their original versions, I recommend hearing both versions of each to hear how they differ, in the case of this song it’s not too drastic of a change. On “push” Sweeping melodic synths and subtle guitars build to an elevated mid tempo rock chorus, this song is well paced and atmospheric, another track that evolves the sound of the band and yet doesn’t abandon the sound they’re known for. “Wasteland” is pure 90s industrial rock and could easily fit in with any of the songs on any of their first three albums.
“Control Z” is my favorite song on the album, With it’s excellent balance of driving industrial beats and guitars it’s just an electrifying song that deserves to be a single. “Crawl” is a song that’s gone through now three versions. This was originally written when Christopher was in The Dreaming and was an acoustic song, The version on the Dead and Gone EP had a music box sounding melody during the verses, The version here is drastically different from that one aside from the vocal melody. Here it starts with a very mechanical beat before bringing in piano and building to a heavy synth chorus, this is definitely one of the songs on the album that push the band’s sound forward.
“Dead and Gone” is another song that straddles the line between old Stabbing Westward and evolving for the future, I think this version is heavier than the version they released on the EP but it’s not largely different. Part of me wonders if the lines “you told me once I wrote the soundtrack to your life, But I doubt you’ll ever hear this song. I’m so scared this might be the last chance I’ll ever have, to say I’m sorry I was wrong.” Was a sceptical questioning of whether fans would listen to the new music, As it turns out a lot of us did and love it, hopefully the band is seeing that.
One thing that hasn’t changed in this band is the lyrical themes of dysfunctional relationships, heartbreak, and feeling isolated. No song on this album feels more pointed on those subjects than “Ghost” and those lyrical themes are backed by great synths, percussive beats, crushing guitars, and Christopher’s powerful cutting vocals.
Album closer fittingly titled “The End” is nothing like anything they’ve done before, this is cinematic and heartbreaking. Gentle synths create a breathtaking soundscape for a heart wrenching end to the album, it’s a beautiful finale. Chasing Ghosts might be Stabbing Westward’s best album to date, this isn’t the sound of a band trying to recapture their old sound, it’s the sound of a passionate band feeling revitalized and building off of their strengths to propel them to a new future and new heights.
10/10